OK, I haven’t quite figured out why I want to be in all these social networking sites, but I actually have accumulated quite a few contacts in Linked In. But twice now, when I tried to add someone as a “Friend,” I get a message, in big red letters, that “We’re sorry, but you must provide an email address to send an invitation to a friend.”

Fine. I know their email address.

The problem is, the geniuses (<VOICE=”Homer Simpson”>I’m being sarcastic</VOICE>) who designed the web site don’t provide any text box in which to put it. Am I missing something?

[Update a few minutes later]

I did figure out, that if I check “Other” instead of “Friend,” I do get a text box for the email address. This seems like a bug to me.

In addition, there is a problem. Apparently, someone I invited disinclined the invitation, or said they didn’t know me, which is why I’m required to enter email addresses for friends, even if they won’t provide a means to actually do that. It seems like this is too harsh a punishment for a one-time occurrence of this. I’ve no idea how it happened, but inviting people you don’t know, or who don’t (for whatever reason) want to admit that they know you, doesn’t seem like such a horrible thing that it’s one strike and you’re out. Another bug, in my opinion.